Just thinking out loud

[Jogeephus]

Was raised by depression era parents who instilled in me their conservative values. When I first learned about the Obama phones from the radio announcements and the pamphlets strewn across town I couldn't help but scratch my head and wonder WTF. I could see the need in feeding the hungry, I could see the need in clothing the poor and those down on their luck but I could not grasp this concept. So in trying to gather some glimmer of understanding I read one of their pamphlets and saw where all you needed to do to qualify for a phone was to be on government assistance.

I must admit, there was a few years when I could have qualified for assistance but during those times a phone was the last of my concerns and pride and my upbringing as well as my ignorance to how to get assistance kept me from pursuing any help and I made do and when I was broke I sought out and found extra work. Anyhow, I have tried to teach my children these same values. I've told them if you can't feed them you don't breed them and it is like owning dogs or livestock - if you can't feed them then you are cruel.

Anyhow, I just learned I am wrong. There is such thing as a free lunch. My daughter is now qualified for it at her school. Free lunch and breakfast. Not that she needs it because she packs her lunch from home. I really can't get my head around this either but the wee pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fit together. You see for the last few years we received an application form for free lunch which we refused to fill out. However, she would not be admitted in school until we filled it out. This bothered us so much that we called the school and they told us we needed to apply for it even though we would be turned down but it had to be filled out. Now I see why. Due to the massive number of children applying for free lunches in our school district and so many children being turned down the federal government has just given our school system an infusion of money so every child will not have to go through the day hungry. I mean, so many children, like my daughter who were turned away and had to go through the day with an empty stomach. :bang:

But forget my daughter for a minute and lets talk about something of the utmost importance. Me and my Obama phone. As mentioned, can qualify for an Obama phone if you get government assistance. Now being I am too poor to feed my own daughter and I now qualify for free school lunches does this not meet the conditions set forth in the Obama phone application?

As to what they are doing with the money the get to feed my daughter I haven't a clue. She's still packing her lunch but I'm sure they are putting it to good use. Also, when you hear the liberals talking about all the school children in the country who only get one decent meal a day and that is provided by the school lunch program just think of my daughter. She is counted in that number and I'm sure there are millions more like her out there. Just wanted to say thanks for your hard earned money going to such a good well run program.

Oh, do you think I can get my O-Phone now?

 

[greybeard]

No O phone for you!!

Your daughter is still carrying her lunch to school, so you're helping the school district to play the system.

 

[Jogeephus]

But I wants me an O-phone! Playing the system they are. When I heard she could now get free lunch the demands they made of us to fill out the application made sense. We were unwilling pawns in their deception. Its disgusting and I can't help but wonder how skewed the numbers they keep touting about hungry children are because my daughter is one of "those turned away". Geesh. What a tangled web they weave.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[msscamp]

As Gomer Pyle used to say, it is a poser isn't it? Please don't get me started on the Federal Government! It won't be pretty - trust me on this!

 

[john250]

First, I'm sad to hear you are so far down on your luck, but I'm glad your poor child will get a meal at school. And that meal will meet Michelle O standards for the amount of carrots and celery sticks.
Now, about that phone. Here, someone set up a tent in the Dollar General parking lot, and they were crowded all day. When I inquired--they were giving away Ophones. (and registering voters). So, just wait for that tent to pop up down at the $ General, show that your kid gets free school meals, and you're in like Flynn.
But seriously, the schools here all go to great pains to note how many students they have who qualify for free lunches. We even have a program which provides free meals in Summer. I'm not familiar with school finance beyond paying property taxes, but evidently if you have a high percent of students who qualify for free lunch it opens the federal vaults for a lot more money. It can also be used to explain poor performance scores when someone asks "why is the graduation rate 40%?" I didn't realize how hard the schools pushed parents to get signed up for this program.
I hope you get that phone. Use it to call the school.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

Our county started the same lunch program here as well.

 

[M5farm]

Here you go JO.

Lifeline Eligibility via Participation in Federal or State Assistance Programs

Most people will qualify for a Lifeline cell phone and service through their participation in a federal or state assistance program. The theory goes, if you are on these designated programs then you have already proven yourself to be in financial need; so no need to prove it all over again. Here are the universal federal assistance programs you'll find in every state:
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps or SNAP)
Medicaid
National School Lunch Program's Free Lunch Program
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Federal Public Housing Assistance (Section 8)
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance
Tribally-Administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TTANF)
Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR)
http://www.freegovernmentcellphones.net/basics/qualify

 

[Bigfoot]

In all likely hood, your daughter did not qualify for free lunch. By reaching some percent of students that do qualify, your entire system did. Half of every students lunch was already paid by the federal government, now the other half will. If your daughter brings her lunch, the school system won't get any money from her. The actual money that comes to your school system is spent on the lunches. By meeting a certain poverty level, there will be some additional money sent, for at risk children. Also your child will probably not qualify those programs as well. I'm not saying it's right, just trying to explain the program.

The phones, that's another story.

 

[M5farm]

who else finds it funny that (section 8 )above automatically assigned an smilies LOL

(Section 8)

 

[kenny thomas]

I don't have kids but I am a taxpayer so I will comment. Here it is almost impossible to get near a school early in the morning. Seems that nobody is working because they almost all drive their kids to school instead of riding the bus. Wonder which is cheapest, the fuel to drive them and pick them up in the afternoon or the lunch. I bet almost all of them qualify for free breakfast and lunch.

 

[1982vett]

I don't have kids but I am a taxpayer so I will comment. Here it is almost impossible to get near a school early in the morning. Seems that nobody is working because they almost all drive their kids to school instead of riding the bus. Wonder which is cheapest, the fuel to drive them and pick them up in the afternoon or the lunch. I bet almost all of them qualify for free breakfast and lunch.

Here....if you live within two miles of the school you eligible to ride the bus (if you wanted to or not). That means if you live in town or even the rural east side of town, you can't ride the bus. In this day and age, who do you know that is going to let their kids walk a couple blocks much less two miles? Even on top of that, only the Middle School is walking distance from residential. The other schools, probably less than 1% would have safe walking access.

 

[greybeard]

Dunno, but I have often wondered if it wouldn't be cheaper for a school district to outsource the whole school bus thing to a 3rd party--or at least the routine part of it.

 

[TexasBred]

Dunno, but I have often wondered if it wouldn't be cheaper for a school district to outsource the whole school bus thing to a 3rd party--or at least the routine part of it.

Many already do. Found it less expensive to sign up for this than buy and maintain buses and always be looking for drivers.

I see a lot of big yellow buses with the school name on them but also have this company's name on the bus.

http://www.durhamschoolservices.com/

 

[Judge Sharpe]

Birmingham Alabama has qualified for free lunches and breakfasts for all of its students. The rational is that there are so many students that qualify anyway, why not give it to everyone. There is a special fund that the Government is using to fund the free lunch and breakfast give away. Children learn better on a full stomach. Funny to me is that over half the students that get free meals are vastly over weight. As are their mothers and fathers. So now we have free food, free phones, free computer and internet and I bet there is assistance for cable tv.
Where are the starving children in this country? I have heard of them but I have not ever seen them. They are not the ones crowding in to the fast food places after school, or the ones who pour dollars in to vending machines for $2.00 candy bars and water bottles.
I am all for helping those who need it, but just a blanket give away is stupid.
We need to encourage those who are working and make it uncomfortable for those who are not.
I am old and cynical and tired, so make allowances for my cold hardheartedness.

 

[greybeard]

You have lots of company Judge.

It's a big shock for some to get out of school and find out they have to now pay for their meals---well, maybe not--just haul out that SNAP EBT card I guess.

 

[J&D Cattle]

I'm on my local school board and the free lunch issue is sure a hot button topic around here. Our district rolled the program out at the beginning of the year. Lots of low income families here with a majority qualifying for free lunches before the change. I think it's great that we are able to provide the kids in need with two meals a day but also see the waste in providing it to kids that can afford to pay for it or would have just eaten something from home.

On the transportation issue above, we see a lot of Durham buses around here too. Our district took a good look this year but with 4 feeder schools and a large county it wasn't cost effective for us to contract transporation out.

 

[Jogeephus]

Here you go JO.

Lifeline Eligibility via Participation in Federal or State Assistance Programs

Most people will qualify for a Lifeline cell phone and service through their participation in a federal or state assistance program. The theory goes, if you are on these designated programs then you have already proven yourself to be in financial need; so no need to prove it all over again. Here are the universal federal assistance programs you'll find in every state:
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps or SNAP)
Medicaid
National School Lunch Program's Free Lunch Program
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Federal Public Housing Assistance (Section 8)
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance
Tribally-Administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TTANF)
Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR)
http://www.freegovernmentcellphones.net/basics/qualify

Thanks for the finding that about the school lunch M5. That's what I thought I remembered reading. So now, in good conscience I can fill out my application form and I won't be lying.

If I qualify for the phone and being my child qualifies for free lunch do you think I might qualify for government housing? And if so, with all that federal land out west you reckon they have a cabin by a lake or a trout stream they could put me up in? If so, I'm gonna quit work and become a dependent and draw everything I'm entitled to.

In all seriousness this seems to be a tangled web we have woven.

Bigfoot, I appreciate the explanation but I would be willing to bet a dollar to a doughnut that the school will pocket the money even if it means fudging some paperwork to say that she did eat lunch because they worked to hard pushing these applications down the parents throats not to get every dime that they somehow think is owed to them.

 

[J&D Cattle]

Bigfoot, I appreciate the explanation but I would be willing to bet a dollar to a doughnut that the school will pocket the money even if it means fudging some paperwork to say that she did eat lunch because they worked to hard pushing these applications down the parents throats not to get every dime that they somehow think is owed to them.

No applications here with our program as every student gets two free meals. Yes, our district will net more income than when we were running the program like years past. School funding is such a mess. Still waiting on votes to see what we'll have to work with. Have to budget well before then though. Ignorant.

 

[Jogeephus]

One of the things that bothers me about this is the money set aside for my daughter could be used for someone who is truly in need. To me this just shows they are more interested in building and funding a bureaucracy than they are helping the child. Am also sure when they publish their stats to the public my child will also be a number showing how many kids receive free lunches so they need to raise taxes to fund all these starving children. And here I sit without an O-phone to call and complain but maybe soon. I have a good mind to go and apply for one and just see what happens. Sad thing is I'd probably get it.

 

[A.Lane]

You bet the school will say your daughter eats lunch at school and pocket the money. Our schools are pretty much ran by the federal government and will do anything to get more money for the school.

When my son was in 3rd grade the school wanted him in special education because he was behind on his reading, even though he had gone to the same school since kindergarden and I felt it was their fault. I told them no and took him to tutoring three nights a week. My best friend is a special education teacher and said the school receives $2500 per student that qualifies and that is why her classes are packed full. They still pushed to have him in special education until the counselor told me that they would have him taken away from me because I was neglecting his needs. I gathered him up and pulled him out of school right then and put him in private school. He ended up graduating at the top of his class and is currently in college. So I guess I win.
However the moral of my long winded story is that the schools will sell their own kids down the road to make a buck.